1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing chamber allocation setting device and a processing chamber allocation setting program which evaluate and set a type of processing which is performed in each of the processing chambers in a semiconductor processing apparatus including a plurality of processing chambers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor processing apparatus, particularly, an apparatus which processes a processing target in a depressurized device, improvement of a productivity in processing a semiconductor to be processed which is a processing target (hereinafter, referred to as a “wafer”) is demanded together with the miniaturization and refinement of the processing. Accordingly, recently, a multi-chamber device in which a plurality of processing chambers is connected to one device is developed to improve the productivity per installation area of a clean room. In the device which includes a plurality of processing chambers to perform processing, each of the processing chambers is adjusted so as to reduce gas therein or a pressure thereof and is connected to a conveyance chamber which includes a robot for conveying the wafer.
As such a multi-chamber device, a device having a structure called as a cluster tool in which processing chambers are radially connected around the conveyance chamber is widely spread. However, the device of the cluster tool requires a larger installation area and has a problem in that the installation area is increased as a diameter of the wafer is increased in recent years. Therefore, in order to address the above-mentioned problem, a device having a structure called as a linear tool appeared (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-511104). A characteristic of the linear tool is a structure that a plurality of conveyance chambers is provided, processing chambers are connected to the conveyance chambers, and the conveyance chambers are connected to each other directly or with a delivery space (hereinafter, referred to as an “intermediate chamber”) interposed therebetween.
Since the multi-chamber device includes a plurality of processing chambers, different processings may be performed on a plurality of types of wafers in separate processing chambers in parallel. In order to perform parallel processing, a processing chamber in which a processing will be performed on each type of wafers is required to be set in advance. Therefore, the allocation of the type of wafer and the processing chamber (hereinafter, referred to as “processing chamber allocation”) is set by a processing chamber setting device.
The processing chamber allocation is determined by evaluating a productivity or a compatibility of a type of wafer to be processed and the processing chamber. Specifically, in case of the linear tool, since a plurality of conveyance chambers is provided and the conveyance path or the conveyance sequence of the wafer is complex, if the processing chamber allocation is changed, the conveyance path or the conveyance sequence is changed so that the productivity may be significantly changed. Accordingly, in order to determine the processing chamber allocation in the linear tool, it is required to focus on the evaluation of the productivity.
There are some suggestions for evaluation of the productivity of the linear tool (for example, see Van Der Meulen: “Linear semiconductor manufacturing logistics and the impact on cycle time” (Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference, 2007, ASMC 2007, IEEE/SEMI, page 111-116) 11-12, Jun. 2007). The suggestions are to calculate the productivity based on a cycle time related with the conveying operation when the processing chamber allocation of the linear tool or the conveyance path of the wafer is given.
The above-described related technology has the following problems.
If a plurality of candidates is considered for the processing chamber allocation, it is desired to select a processing chamber allocation which may accomplish the best productivity. However, the related technology only calculates the productivity, but does not suggest a processing chamber allocation which may accomplish the best productivity, for given processing chamber allocation. Therefore, a person who determines the processing chamber allocation needs to repeat the trial and error to derive the processing chamber allocation having higher productivity. However, in a semiconductor processing device in which a large number of processing chambers are disposed in accordance with the increase in the productivity, since the number of candidates for processing chamber allocation is huge, it is difficult to derive the best processing chamber allocation by the trial and error. Therefore, the present invention relates to setting of the processing chamber allocation in the linear tool and provides a method capable of rapidly and simply selecting the best processing chamber allocation.